Updating MX records in cPanel for web hosting?

Better to get separate DNS hosting (or build your own DNS servers). This may turn out to be difficult if your domain name registrar/reseller is your web host. But if you bought your domain name separately you should have access to your DNS servers without having to use your web host's cPanel service. Then you can set up all of your records within your domain's zone. So you point A and AAAA records at your web host, MX records at your email host and all other records as appropriate. Then any service failure (other than DNS itself of course) cannot affect any other service.

Quoted from Guest on Monday, 01 September 2025

I am going to have my professional e-mail address hosted with an e-mail hosting company, but keep my website hosted with a regular hosting company.

I need to update my MX records in Cpanel to do so. Not a problem. I've done this before.

Here's my thought / question:
In the event that there was an outage and my hosting went down, the web hosting company wouldn’t be able to “tell the world” about the MX records and direct emails to the correct place. I would not get the e-mails then. Is my understanding correct? So I better have a reputable host with good uptime. Correct?

If your DNS is hosting with your hosting provider and their server went down, all of your sites goes down too including your emails.

Do not use your hosting provider's DNS and use an external one with redundant DNS instead. To avoid losing important emails, use an email provider with redundant mail servers ( at least 2 MX setup ).

I bought my domain through Netim.com. They are in France. My domain ends in .GQ, so kind of weird/rare TLD. I got a highly valuable single word that is related to e-mail.

My Netim.com account is very basic. There are not a lot of options. Would I still be able to do this?

Would I use something like this: https://www.cloudns.net/

Here is a screenshot from my Netim account: https://imgur.com/hCTmLYG

I don't know if I'll be able to do this, with the lacking number of features in Netim.

ClouDNS is a good choice. Their free service will give you a single zone, which is sufficient for all the records you may need for one domain name and some subdomains if you need them. You may find it a bit odd that the way they do the free stuff uses their own domain name but it points yours to the right place so not a worry. You sign up for a ClouDNS free account and follow the instructions, they have it pretty well laid out.

But the netim.com account may have sufficient flexibility for you to do it all in there. That would simplify matters, so check there first. However, most registrars only offer a very basic DNS service, just about enough to get you to a host or specialist DNS service provider.

Post again if you get stuck. I have a ClouDNS account so am familiar with their interface.

I changed the nameservers in my Netim.com account back to Netim. Now if I pick "DNS Settings" from the dropdown, I get this: https://imgur.com/nmAywa2

So is this where I would update and point to my webhosting, and then create MX records to point to my Exchange mail hosting, etc.?

Could I just do this option vs. going to somewhere like CloudDNS as mentioned before?

Sorry, I copied Imgur when I meant Netim. Let's start again. Set up a (free if you only have one domain) ClouDNS account. Point your domain from the registrar, Netim, at that account (the CouDNS instructions tell you how, come back to me if you get lost or confused). I haven't used the free account, I use mine for many domains and have many zones.

Still, I think you should be able to set up the A and AAAA records to point to your web hosting service and the MX records to the mail hosting service. There will also be plenty of records left to do the TXT records, as the mailing host will instruct you to do. The SOA record will be set up automatically with the zone creation.

My understanding from what you've said is that Imgur is your host. The whole idea is to separate the services so if one goes down the other is unaffected. So split the DNS service away from Imgur.

Imgur is just a place to upload photos to share in situations like this lol They are not my web hosting company.

Lol.That's cool. Just substitute your actual host, where the cPanel you mentioned is, for Imgur.

Thank you for your help! I really appreciate it.

Before I signup for ClouDNS, I would like to know... can I just edit the DNS Settings with Netim? I can add everything when I go to my registrar's DNS Settings. I got all the records from "Zone Editor" in cPanel and entered them over at Netim. Here is a screenshot: https://imgur.com/k9j9G66

I haven't done the MX records yet, because I still need to signup for Exchange mail hosting. That will be next.

Should this work how I am imagining it or do I HAVE to go with something like ClouDNS? Right now if I go to the website, I am still seeing a generic Netim webpage.

UPDATE:

I created a ClouDNS account. Everything is up and running! I don't know what I was nervous about, but I got everything figured out pretty easily.

I have HawkHost hosting my static webpage so if people come to my inbox domain name, they will see a nice message saying it's a privately owned email domain. Then, I paid Apps4Rent.com $6.25/mo to host my new personal Exchange e-mail address. $75/yr to be rid of my outlook.com address and Microsoft's crappy spam and phishing filters!